Earlier this week, USA TODAY Sports released its annual NCAA Finances: Revenue and Expenses by School database.
The database shows the revenue and expenses of 230+ public schools at the Division I level. Every public school at the Division I level has the obligation to release the data while private schools and those under state exemptions are not.
This year, five schools totaled revenue of over $200 million and 49 totaled over $100 million in revenue.
Power Five programs take up each of the first 51 spots in the rankings with UCF being the first non-Power Five program to make the list at No. 51. The Knights totaled $89 million in revenue this past year.
Power Five programs below Central Florida include Washington State and Oregon State at No. 53 and No. 54 respectively.
Beyond that there are not too many surprises when it comes to what athletic departments brought in the most revenue.
The Big Ten and SEC dominate the top 12 with 10 of the 12 universities being in one of the two conferences. The other two universities in the top-12 that are not members of either conference will be in the near future.
If anything the figures show very much what we have long thought of the college sports landscape. The Big Ten and SEC are miles ahead of the other conferences. The ACC is in a distant third while the Pac-12 and Big-12 will be in quite a bit of trouble once schools such as Oklahoma, Texas, UCLA, and USC leave their respective conferences.
Notably, neither UCLA nor USC’s revenue and expenses numbers are released. UCLA is exempted from doing so while USC is a private university.